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Internal and External Forces of Organizational

Change in Project Management

A case study on a collaborative project

FANNY ARONSSON

AXELIA HUUSKO

VIKTOR WANSULIN

School of Business, Society & Engineering Course: Thesis in Business Administration

Course code: FOA243 15 cr

Supervisor: Inti Lammi

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Acknowledgement

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the people around us who have been very supportive in completing our goal and making this study possible. First of all, thank you to Professor Inti Lammi, for your guidance and support during this process, it has been incredibly appreciated. Second, for all the great reviews and opinions that helped us form this thesis, we would like to thank our opposition groups. Lastly, a huge thank you to all the respondents from Swedish Scaleups and all the participating partners; Eskilstuna Kommun, Inkubera, Linköping Science Park, Uppsala Innovation Center and Västerås Science Park for participating in our interviews and for taking the time to read, reflect and address the questions honestly. This thesis would not have been possible without you.

Thank you,

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Abstract

Date: (21/01/2021)

Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits

Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University

Authors: Fanny Aronsson Axelia Huusko Viktor Wansulin ​ (96/07/27) (96/05/24) (98/11/30)

Title: An Examination of Internal and External Forces of Organizational Change in a Project Setting; A case study on a collaborative project

Tutor: Inti Lammi

Keywords: Project management, temporary organizations, internal & external change, organizational change, collaboration & work satisfaction.

RQ: 1 How has the working processes/structure transformed due to internal and external changes?

RQ: 2 How does these changes affect the collaboration and work satisfaction, seeing that such extensive changes, which take place simultaneously or in close connection, can be very demanding?

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to find evidence on how temporary projects change in connection to both internal organizational changes, in terms of change in management, as well as the external force of change of COVID-19. In addition, the thesis will also go into depth on how these changes have affected collaboration and work-satisfaction.

Method: The research is a case study of qualitative nature and ten semi-structured interviews, with five project leaders and five employees in a collaborative project, were conducted to enable interactions between theories and empirical findings. It was decided to obtain a case project in order to investigate how the external force of COVID-19 and the internal force of change in head management has affected the project's work settings, collaboration and the well-being/work satisfaction of the employees. Along with the interviews, the theoretical structure made it possible to perform a thematic analysis.

Conclusion: The changes connected to the working processes and the structure given the forces of internal and external change have altered the way the employees perform and operate in the project. It is concluded that collaboration is of utmost importance and that building trust and relationships have clearly become harder in a virtual work setting, it has affected how the project participants work together towards common objectives. These major changes have also affected the work satisfaction of the project members to different extents.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction​………....1

2. Problematization & Purpose​……….3

2.1 Research questions​……….. 4 3. Literature Review​……….. 5 3.1 Project management​……….... 5 3.1.1 Projects-As-Practice………...6 3.2 Organizational change​………. 8 3.2.1 Forces of change………..8

3.2.2 Collaboration in changing projects​……….. 10

3.2.3 Work satisfaction in changing projects​………....11

3.3 Theoretical framework​……….. 12 4. Methodology​………. 15 4.1 Research Design​……….... 15 4.2 Setting​………....16 4.3 Data collection​………...18 4.3.1 Qualitative interviews​……….. 18 4.3.2 Secondary sources​………....19 4.5 Data Analysis​……….20 4.6 Quality criteria​………...21 4.7 Methodological Limitations​……….. 22 5. Empirical Findings​………...23

5.1 Employee feelings towards change​………... 23

5.1.1 The internal change​………..23

5.1.2 The external change​………. 24

5.2 Absence of social interactions​………... 25

5.3 Striving towards common goals​……….... 27

5.4 Stress in connection to workload​………...28

6. Analysis ……….​30

6.1 Internal and external forces of change affecting processes within a project​……….30

6.2 The importance of structure and the different stages in a project​………. 32

6.3 Collaboration and the importance of relationships in a project setting​………. 33

6.4 Work satisfaction within a changing project​………. 36

6.5 Implications​………... 39 7. Conclusion​……….40 7.1 Limitation​……….. 41 7.2 Future research​……….. 42 Reference List​………...4​3 Appendix

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1. Introduction

The accompanying section will include a concise outline for the significance of conducting this study, the foundation data, and introduction of topics and theories that will be presented in this thesis.

A project can be defined in multiple ways, it could be considered an agency for change or a way to organize resources (Cleland & King, 1983; Andersen et al., 1987; Hornstein, 2015; Turner & Müller, 2003) . In addition, it can also be considered as a temporary organization (Cleland & Kerzner, 1985; Turner & Müller, 2003; Marchi & Sarcina, 2011). What makes the temporary organization unique among other organizations is that it is time bound and in this setting it is also created to achieve specific objectives (Marchi & Sarcina, 2011; Hornstein, 2015).

Many organizations use projects as a part of their structure where they act as the mother company (Asad Mir & Pinnington, 2014), however, there are also projects which are actually created to be a temporary organization. An example could be EU-funded, temporary growth projects. These kinds of temporary organizations have specified objectives such as stimulation of growth in regards to different companies as well as the economy of the host country (​Marchi & Sarcina, 2011​). A project like this could be very loosely structured and collaboration plays a key role in order for the project to achieve its objectives.

What would happen if the environment surrounding these temporary ​organizations, as well as the internal structure changed drastically?

Late December 2019 marked the start of what would later become a widespread and deadly pandemic called COVID-19 (WHO, 2020). The effects of the virus have of course been on many different levels; personal, business, societal but also on a national level. One of the most common restrictions that has been executed throughout the globe is a phenomenon called social distancing, this is also one of the restrictions that have severe effects on the economy (Maharaj & Kleczkowski, 2012) and how work is executed.

COVD-19 is an unpredictable external factor that has had a large effect on many companies, organizations and projects. Such an extensive external factor could often result in a lot of internal changes such as furloughs, employees being terminated, change in leadership and staff, as well as reorganizations of the structure and processes (Shin, 1977). However, these

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kinds of internal changes could happen even without the threat of a pandemic or any other external factor causing changes in the internal environment.

What is interesting to investigate is how COVID-19, which is an external source for change, has affected the concept of working in projects, while at the same time there is a large internal change of switching project management.

Organizations all over the world are increasingly implementing project management as a tool in order to increase its efficiency (Asad Mir & Pinnington, 2014; Hornstein, 2015). This is not only a normal occurrence within the business administration field, but it can be found in the majority of today's industries and sectors. By transferring the task from the business unit, to project teams who are: operating with a limited budget, are unique and temporary, the task can be accomplished in an efficient way (Hornstein, 2015). Project teams are constantly adapting to changes in terms of environment and needs (Deeprose, 2002). The dynamic environment that projects are facing today can affect the project by increased threat, a negative impact, or by increased opportunity, a positive impact (Anderson & Merna, 2003). COVID-19 has forced companies to adapt to a changing environment in a short amount of time (Seidl & Whittington, 2020).

In addition to these extensive changes it would also be interesting to investigate how they have affected the collaboration between and within the parties involved in a project/temporary organization. As has been concluded by previous researchers such as Hällgren and Söderholm (2011), extensive changes within organizations can often lead to uncertainty, stress and other negative feelings. Therefore, an examination of the effects on work satisfaction is also of high relevance.

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2. Problematization & Purpose

In this section, the problematization, purpose and research questions will be presented.

Many project organizations have quite a loose structure. They are temporary, meaning that they only exist for a limited time, for example three years as in this case and during this time they interact with many different parties. The project depends on interrelations with stakeholders and they need to participate and be involved, which ultimately means that they do a lot of networking ( ​Marchi & Sarcina, 2011)​. To be able to function as a project organization like this, there is a need for flexibility and adaptability (Jalali Sohi, 2018; Thompson, 2003; Turner & Müller, 2003; ​Marchi & Sarcina, 2011​).

Within all kinds of businesses, such as organizations or projects there are sometimes a need for change of leadership. This could be because of objectives not being met, disorganization, staff withdrawals, lack of strategic focus, large financial losses or even bullying to name a few (Boddy, 2017; Lehn & Zhao, 2006). When a change like this occurs, the new leader could implement drastic and very different ways of working for the employees or change nothing at all. However, research supports that usually, if the new leader is an external hire, entirely new to the organization, they will want to make more changes, whereas if they were hired within the organization they would follow previous strategies and actions (Westphal & Fredickson, 2001). A change like this is what has occurred in the temporary, project-based organization that is the focus of investigation for this thesis. In December 2019, they had a change of head management.

Due to COVID-19, the environment surrounding the project-based organization has changed drastically and new, unforeseen changes could occur at any moment because of the uncertainty of the pandemic and how it is handled. What this implies is that, during an extensive change such as exchanging the head leader, a strategic decision, the project is also hit by an unforeseen external force such as COVID-19, which provides a new set of challenges as well as further changes within the organization.

While there has been a lot of research conducted on project-based and temporary organizations, as well as investigations on these organizations in connection to the environment they are operating in (Engwall, 2003). There has not been any previous research on how such a temporary, project-based organization handles an internal change such as a

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shift in leadership while at the same time they have to handle an external crisis causing further changes, such as COVID-19. What working processes have been changed, how, or if they have been changed at all, how the collaborations between different partners in the project handles these changes or how people feel regarding them. Therefore, there is considered a gap in the research, seeing that there is no previous research covering this area.

The purpose of this research is to collect data and investigate how temporary projects change in connection to both internal organizational changes in terms of change in head leadership as well as the external force of change, being COVID-19. If there are any behavioral adaptations in order to cope with the situation of the pandemic and how the project and its participants have been affected. This research can be used to understand the different situations that can occur due to organizational change, caused by internal and external factors simultaneously or in close connection. Since operational practices are all about continuity, a quick change can interrupt the flow of working activity. Researchers have previously focused more on slowly natural evolutionary change rather than a fast-changing environment, like a pandemic (Seidl & Whittington, 2020).

Regarding further purposes, this thesis could also be used as a reference for managing collaborative projects with a loose based structure undergoing multiple changes simultaneously. To see the importance of collaboration where depending on each other in order to reach a common objective is key. However, it is important to note that it is a case study and may therefore be very specific.

2.1 Research questions

Based on the introduction and problematization, two research questions have been formed.

- How has the working processes/structure transformed due to internal and external changes?

- How do these changes affect the collaboration and work satisfaction, seeing that such extensive changes, which take place simultaneously or in close connection, can be very demanding?

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3. Literature Review

In this chapter, the already existing knowledge about projects, change, collaboration and work satisfaction will be presented. The concepts presented are selected to provide support for this research and will be discussed in later chapters.

3.1 Project management

To be able to understand the setting of this thesis it is important to get a general grasp of what projects actually are and how they work.

Projects can come in different shapes or forms and can be used for several different areas. Packendorff and Lindgren (2014) discusses the concept of projectification from two perspectives, narrow and broad. They state that​“the notion of projectification has emerged as projects have become a common form of work organisation in all sectors of the economy during recent decades”. The narrow point of view is the idea of projects as an organizational solution to certain types of tasks for handling complex and nonroutine tasks, or that a project can be seen as a temporary organization that is task oriented. The broader perspective is discussed as “ ​projectification as cultural and discursive processes​”. Where you look at the process of projectification not only in a work setting, meaning that the individual organizes activities like projects in a daily life situation since daily situations can be seen as temporary, unique, limited et cetera, just like a project. They also conclude that projects have become a more and more popular way to structure the work, both within organizations but also as stand alone.

Previous project research has concluded that projects could for example be engineering projects that usually need large teams and collaboration is of the utmost importance (Turner, 2009; Simon et al., 2012). There are also smaller projects, for example construction at work, maintenance, research, development or even product launches. It could also be as common as moving houses or going on a vacation (Turner, 2009). The lifetime of projects differ depending on the type of project, a project can be active between two weeks up to five years or even longer as an example. Clearly there is room for interpretation when it comes to the term project and what it means.

As stated in the introduction, several different researchers have had their take on the definition of projects (Cleland & King, 1983; Andersen et al., 1987). Turner and Müller (2003) provides

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a clear definition in their work: ​“A project is a temporary organization to which resources are assigned to undertake a unique, novel and transient endeavour managing the inherent uncertainty and need for integration in order to deliver beneficial objectives of change.”

What this definition states is that a project in fact is a temporary organization, meaning that it is time-bound and has an end. Different types of resources are put into the temporary organization to handle this unique and new endeavor, with all its entailing uncertainties, to reach beneficial objectives already set out.

In Skulmoski and Hartman’s 2010 study, they investigate the different competencies that can be identified in the various stages in a project. Because of the different stages, different tasks need to be completed. The stages investigated are; the initial phase, the planning phase, the implementation phase and the close-out phase. Their study shows that depending on which phase the project is in, there is increased workload in certain areas. For example, team building in the initial phase as well as writing and quality checking in the close-out phase. As has been stated previously, regarding the term temporary organizations, different definitions of the term “project” presented temporary organizations as one of them, therefore, it means that temporary organizations could also be defined as projects (Turner & Müller, 2003). What previous literature has concluded is that temporary organizations have greater adaptability and changeability capacity, and that these temporary organizations can be evaluated by taking into account the essence of the objectives, length of the project, working group or team characteristics, as well as the variety of leadership and organizational styles (Marchi & Sarcina, 2011). For the purpose of this thesis, the term project will be considered interchangeable with the term temporary organization.

Further, as has been touched upon previously, project literature also includes the term processes. Literature regarding processes studies how things develop over time and why things develop the way they do (Van de Ven & Huber, 1990, Langley, 1999) which also ties into the changeability of projects and temporary organizations. When it comes to processes in a project setting it is beneficial to define the activities and task that generates the process. Clarification of roles, reporting relations and responsibilities are beneficial to define, when doing that it is easier to understand the process as a whole, which can increase the chances of project success (Abdomerovic and Blakemore, 2002).

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3.1.1 Projects-As-Practice

A further project approach presented by Hällgren and Söderholm, was published in 2011 and called projects-as-practice. Within their research they present two different views of projects, the first one is more traditional with a focus on best practice, organizational form, leadership styles, tools and models. Whereas the second one has a focus on processes which include change, social processes and development of the organization (Hällgren & Söderholm, 2011). According to their research, projects are seen as the sum of the different actions of the people involved within it, with an emphasis on how the people involved act, as well as the structure of their work. What is concluded within their research is that both the process approach as well as the traditional approach are lacking in regards to explaining “the situated activities of human beings”. This is where the projects-as-practice approach comes in. In addition to Hällgren and Söderholm (2011), other researchers such as Whittington (2006), Jarzabkowski & Spee (2009) have also had their take on the practice approach and concluded that this approach has a focus on the activities and practices of human beings in a social context and that it is divided into three parts. These three parts are praxis, practice and practitioners. Praxis is the work that gets the job done, there is no specific plan followed, but rather the tools and methods known, are utilized to reach the end goal. The work needed could for instance be meetings, briefings, presentations and simple talk between employees (Mezias et al., 200; Whittington, 2006). Practices are drawn upon values, operational procedures, cultures, norms, policies and rules when executing the project (Hällgren & Söderholm, 2011; Mezias et al., 2001; Jarzabkowski & Spee, 2009; Whittington, 2006). It is routinized behavior which includes know-how of different tools and methods to actually finish the job. Practice is the explanation of why people within the project act a certain way (Whittington, 2006; Hällgren & Wilson, 2008). In addition, based on previous and new experiences new practices can be developed (Hällgren & Söderholm 2011). Practitioners are the people who execute the praxis and practices, this includes anyone involved with developing, executing or finalizing the project (Whittington, 2006).

Hällgren and Söderholm (2011) also suggest that projects-as-practice look into the smaller, more mundane activities performed by practitioners that make up their usual workdays. That their research gives an understanding of those smaller details that are usually forgotten about or deemed too insignificant to bother with. This approach paves the way for practitioners to understand why they do certain activities “to get the job done” as well as allows them to understand why changes are perceived in a certain way.

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What all of these theories of project management, projects as practice and processes have in common is change, hence the following section on organizational change.

3.2 Organizational change

Regarding organizational change, Kurt Lewin is considered by many researchers to be a well known and respected researcher of the subject. Lewin’s model of change consists of three steps and is considered by many scholars as the classical perspective and approach for handling change (Cummings et al., 2016). However, some scholars have widely criticized Lewin’s model as it can be recognized as oversimplified, meaning that the model lacks depth and perspectives of the change process. Other scholars argue that change should be viewed as constant processes within an organization (Burnes, 2004). According to researchers, organizational change is a complex phenomenon that is often associated with failure due to the complexity of the environment the change is occurring in (Jacobs et al., 2013; Roland Gareis, 2010; Lehmann, 2010), however, it is necessary in order for businesses to adapt and flourish in the fast-changing business environment. Also, in order to remain relevant, organizational change is inevitable and impossible to disregard (Singh & Shoura, 2006). Lehmann (2010) enlightened the importance and usefulness of communication during periods of change. Emphasizing that communication is the start of the change as well as it can be used as an effective tool in preparing the people involved to decrease the feelings of insecurity. Organizational change is the actions taken in order to alternate a specific component of the organization, such as restructuring of the organization as well as altering its internal processes (Nery Vanessa de Fátima et al., 2019).

3.2.1 Forces of change

According to Bryson et al. (1993) strategic decision-making is made to optimize operations, it is a critical factor for successfully operating projects, also referred to as planned change. A strategic decision can be defined as an important decision in terms of the resources committed, actions taken or precedents set (Eisenhardt et al., 1992). Common contextual factors for strategic decision-making is based on the external environment surrounding the subject area as well as the internal organizational characteristics (Papadakis et al., 1998). Managers face situations of decision-making with acquainted intentions (Eisenhardt et al., 1992).

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There has been little theoretical and empirical work for unpredicted change and the challenge it would contribute for organizations. Previous research for bounded rationality in strategic decisions shows that environments with high uncertainty and low external control limits rationality (Dean & Sharfman, 1993). Unanticipated change can be considered the opposite to strategic decision and planned change. It can be connected to bounded rationality, but it is the extreme case where there is little or no knowledge in advance. It is commonly disregarded, thus it can easily turn out to become a crisis (Hällgren & Wilson, 2008). The COVID-19 pandemic is a perfect example of an unanticipated and unforeseen change, it has caused massive organizational change throughout the globe. There is little or no rationality behind this change which has led to many managerial decisions and changes in organizations. Regarding organizational change, a differentiation can be made based on the nature of the reason for the change. The change can have an external or an internal characteristic based on the event occurring (Langley et al., 2013).

The different types of change affect the organization from different angles. Change can be identified from the broadest of concepts such as mindsets, to the most narrow like a specific tool or employee (Mintzberg & Wesley, 1992). Previous studies have shown that depending on what types of changes that are occurring, they could have vastly different outcomes (Mintzberg & Wesley, 1992; Dominguez et al., 2015) and a potential change per se, can have devastating effects on the outcome and performance of projects (Hällgren & Wilson, 2008). How a potential change affects a specific organization depends on the competences and resources exploited and how they are utilized (Teece et al., 1997). Most research made, either pay attention to an internal or an external change separately. Viewing these combined is crucial for organizations to meet demand and long-term learning (Murk & Walls, 1999; Vuorinen & Martinsuo, 2019).

Table 1 (created by the authors)

Forces of external change Forces of internal change

- Political - Economical - Natural disaster - Technological - Governmental - Environmental - Leadership - Structure - Strategy - People - Technology - Cultural

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External forces refer to the changes of environmental uncertainties outside of the organization (Papadakis, 1998). A specification of environmental context variables are political (Mintzberg & Wesley, 1992), economic, technological (Sopow, 2020), governmental (Dominguez et al., 2015) environmental and natural disasters (Battaglia et al., 2019). For the external factors forcing change, projects have little or no control over the cause (Bryson et al., 1993) it is beyond the control of the organization (Mellert et al., 2015). Daft et al., (1988) views environmental change as the major factor influencing organizational decision-making, structures and internal processes. Dominguez et al., (2015) support that external forces are mainly the drivers of change. The origin of change can come to light from any environmental factor in terms of an external force or through intentional decision-making in terms of internal forces (Langley et al., 2013).

Internal forces of change refer to changes within the organization. These organizational context variables are grounded from sources inside the organization such as changing leadership (Jarzabkowski, 2003; Dominguez et al., 2015), strategy (Barker ​et al.​, 2001; Boeker, 1997a; Miller, 1993; Simons, 1994), ​structure (Barker ​et al.​, 2001; Gordon ​et al.​, 2000; Hayward and Shimizu, 2006; Lant ​et al.​, 1992) culture and people (Král & Králová, 2016; Bate et al., 2000). There is also the variable of technology, according Diab-Bahman & Al-Enzi (2020) when new technologies emerge it can change how the organization or firms operate. Had the technology of virtual video calls not emerged, a situation which calls for working from home would be a lot harder to conduct.

3.2.2 Collaboration in changing projects

Collaboration is the operation of joining forces or joint partnership, it can be utilized between two or more people within one single entity, such as within a project to combine knowledge and more efficiently achieve goals by working together (Bond-Barnard et al., 2018). It is a crucial factor for successfully performing projects (Vaaland, 2004) and collaboration increases willingness of organizational incentives to perform challenging operations (Nepelski & Piroli, 2018; Katz, 1986). If receiving complementary resources, reducing risk and minimizing transaction costs, there is a tendency for higher willingness of joining forces (Nepelski & Piroli, 2018; Caloghirou, Tsakanikas & Vonortas, 2001; Hagedoorn, Link & Vonortas, 2000). The level of output being created through collaborations heavily depends on the partners, the skill-set and knowledge of the comprised people involved (Nepilski & Piroli, 2018). Collaboration has strong connections to network theory due to the appearance of

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formulating alliances through networking activities. Having a strong relevant network can provide huge opportunities and extensive information as well as being highly valuable in international settings (Gulati, 1999).

When investigating collaborations in projects, the reasons for why the relations between partners and people work well or are dysfunctional need to be addressed. By reviewing previous literature, conflicts seem to be the major factor for dysfunctional collaboration. Conflicts are destructive by nature and can be avoided through institutionalized behavior of patterns to minimize the risk or implementing team-building activities (Vaaland, 2004). Thus, conflicts are mostly viewed as a negative phenomenon, it can challenge previous goals or even be the link towards progress and creativity (Gemunden, 1985).

Collaboration has a strong relationship to trust and communication for linking project management success. If trust is achieved in projects, people are more willing to ask questions, being honest towards others, increase risk-taking and be open towards challenging tasks with less anxiety and stress (Bond-Barnard et al., 2018) “ ​Trust can be defined as a function of the predictability and expectations of others’ behaviours or a belief in others’ competencies, which affects performance through activation of cooperation” ​(Bond-Barnard et al., 2018). According to Tyler (2003), success factors such as trust have a positive impact on cooperation and collaboration performance. If established in an efficient way, it will positively contribute to shared interdependent knowledge of expertise among members in projects.

3.2.3 Work satisfaction in changing projects

Human resources are the skills and knowledge of the employees. It can in most cases be considered the highest valuable asset of a company, organization or project (Söderlund & Bredin, 2006). According to Hällgren and Söderholm (2011) the amount of work within a project can in many cases lead to significant feelings of stress, as well as burn-out and family-problems caused by long working hours. Söderlund and Bredin (2006) concur and state that the effects of project-based organizing often lead to problems and challenges for the firm’s human relation management. Besides stress and anxiety, they also bring up trust and state that within project-based organizing there could often be a lack of trust, especially in looser based organizations. As can be seen, working within a project can in many cases lead to lower work satisfaction.

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Previous research has also concluded that organizational change can be a factor affecting the individual’s health and overall well-being (​Armenakis & Harris, 2009​; ​Saksvik et al., 2007​; Nery Vanessa de Fátima, Sanches & Nieva, 2019). Organizational change can in many cases lead to stress, lower work satisfaction, frustration, and lowered performance. According to Bordia et al. (2004) and Rafferty and Grifn (2006) the stress caused by organizational change is often due to the uncertainty regarding the changes in the working environment. Rafferty and Grifn (2006) have also concluded that poorly planned changes, which can often occur when something unexpected happens, lead to greater feelings of uncertainty and therefore more stress. In addition, their research has also proven that uncertainty and stress is negatively associated with work satisfaction, commitment and trust, which ultimately leads to poorer health for the people involved.

Therefore, human relationship management and work satisfaction is of high importance when it comes to project organizations and organizational change.

3.3 Theoretical framework

To construct the conceptualized framework for this thesis, the concepts and methods presented previously will be connected to the scope in how these will be used for this research. It has been constructed broadly, given the nature of this investigation and the complexity of the project selected to collect the data. Theory is a guide in advising how to carry out research, usually (variable A) based on theory will have certain results on (variable B). In this research there are two different variables, variable A (internal change) and variable B (external change) contain different theories collected from previous literature, it will be examined how they affect variable C (the project chosen for this case study). The project is analyzed in connection to the concepts presented which are evaluated further in this section and then it is investigated how these forces of change impact collaboration and work satisfaction.

Previous literature of project management is introduced to give clear insight and knowledge about project settings, important concepts and their structures. Further concepts from previous literature, provided in the review, introduce the project-as-practice approach. This enables the understanding of how to perform projects and connects to the research how these practical activities have been affected. The main focus of this research and the phenomena studied is organizational change. It is the backbone of this thesis describing the forces of change. Given that the project chosen for this case study had both an internal force of change switching

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project management and an external force of change in the environment being COVID-19. Here, strategic and unanticipated change is introduced to clearly separate the different changes occurring.

There is an assumption that large organizational changes, such as the external force of change being COVID-19 and an internal force of change, the change in head management, are very demanding. However, considering a project setting, in which according to previous literature, practitioners should be used to changes occurring seeing that it is a normal development within projects and temporary organizations, this might not be the perception. As mentioned in the problematization, what has not been previously studied, is how these changes affect the project when they occur simultaneously or in close connection to each other. Such extensive changes like these from two different variables should have negative consequences for both collaboration and work satisfaction of employees. Given that humans are against changes by nature, a restructuring change as well as an environmental change alternating the working processes in this setting is investigated to validate this theory.

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This model is created to visualize the connections between the theoretical concepts, it shows how the theoretical framework will be used for narrowing down important concepts in order to answer the research questions and fulfill the purpose of this thesis. The point of departure of the model is the concept of Project Management, which is then affected by the internal and external changes, being the phenomenon of the study. These changes in turn affect the working processes and structure within the project. Lastly, depending on how the processes and structures change, they may also affect collaboration and work satisfaction. The project-as-practice approach includes the technological tools as being part of the daily work, therefore it will not be presented in this model, however, it can be considered included in the working structure/processes part.

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4. Methodology

In the following section the research design, setting, data collection methods, what types of sources, a literature review as well as limitations will be presented.

4.1 Research Design

The method used to carry out this thesis is qualitative, which is a form of study that focuses more on the non-measurable dimensions in order to obtain outcomes beyond what can be answered by numbers and short statements. Seeing that this qualitative approach is an open-ended way of conducting research, it does not adopt sequential measures (Bryman & Bell, 2015).

The focus of this study is on organizational change first and foremost. The context in which this is studied is a temporary project which has experienced a large internal change in terms of a new head management resulting in processes and structures being changed because of the new project manager. However, there is also a second dimension to this organizational change, namely the external force of COVID-19, which occurred in close connection to the change in head management. Therefore, the focus is not only on organizational change, but external and internal forces of change occurring simultaneously or in close connection and what the effects of them are. The theoretical structure relies on literature regarding project management, organizational change, collaboration and work satisfaction in order to supplement the key concepts.

The initial approach for this thesis was a deductive approach, this means that the authors collected information about relevant themes for the topic of choice, chose different theories that would fit the research and then elaborated on these theories (Saunders et al., 2012). However, according to Bryman (1988) there are some limitations to the deductive approach, namely the possibility of reaching an early conclusion because of the chosen theories. Therefore, there is a need for adaptation of the approach to be more inductive. The inductive approach can be incorporated into the deductive approach in order to integrate new theories into the research, based on unanticipated themes surfacing in the collected data (Saunders et al., 2012). Which is the case for this thesis, the interviews provided new theories that would better fit the research and were therefore incorporated into the literature and theory section of this thesis. Therefore, this thesis uses a mix of the deductive approach and the inductive approach, which can be called an abductive approach according to Saunders et al. (2012).

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Regarding what type of research methodology is used there are three different types of epistemological research methodologies. They are positivism, realism and interpretivism. Interpretivist research requires prior comprehension of accepted knowledge, but because of the uncertainty and unpredictable nature of what is considered to be fact, there is an expectation that existing knowledge is inadequate (Hudson & Ozanne, 1988). According to Bryman and Bell (2015) the primary concern of interpretivism is understanding human behaviors through interviews and observations. Interpretivism is the specific epistemological branch used for this thesis.

4.2 Setting

The selection method used for the primary data during this undertaking was purposive selection (Bryman & Bell, 2015). The chosen project, Swedish Scaleups, that is examined in this thesis had the best possible attributes for the research area and was eager to take part of the study. The background information presented about the project, which is also the setting of this study, was collected from Swedish Scaleups website, documents provided from the project organization, as well as from an initial meeting with top management from Swedish Scaleups.

The project itself is called Växtzon 2 and within this project there are a number of other smaller scale projects. This means that Växtzon 2 operates the platform called Swedish Scaleups. Växtzon 2, and therefore Swedish Scaleups, is a project that is part of the European Union's growth policy and a lot of money has been invested by the EU in order to create growth operations. The main focus of the project is innovation and business support, while the purpose of the project is to create collaboration methods and stimulate growth, work opportunities as well as the economy as a whole (Swedish Scaleups, 2020).

Swedish Scaleups was initiated in 2018, it is a project in which ten different parties consisting of incubators and science parks operate in the Eastern Central of Sweden region. The municipalities included in this region are Eskilstuna, Linköping, Norrköping, Uppsala, Västerås and Örebro. The firms that benefit from Swedish Scaleups are given access to all ten parties' knowledge, expertise and networks to scale up their operations more quickly. As is custom for projects, Swedish Scaleups is active for a limited time. During a period of three years, they will support more than 240 firms to grow from a start-up phase to a scale-up phase (European Commission, 2020).

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The structure of Swedish Scaleups is very loose, which can of course make it quite confusing, complex and hard to understand. However, an illustration has been created of the structure to make it easier to comprehend:

Figure 2 (Swedish Scaleups, 2020)

At the top is the project manager, who works closely with people who are in the eight different programmes below. At the bottom is the ten incubators and science parks which conduct the activities in the project, hereinafter referred to as partners. Within this structure, employees may have double responsibility, both within the ten partners as well as the eight programs. The people within the ten partners do not work solely within the project, the involvement differs between the project workers. Other time is spent on activities within their own incubator or science park. Which means that in theory, opinions and activities between the place of hire (science park/incubator) and the project could clash.

The reason why this organization is of interest for this thesis is that in december 2019 they had a change of head management. By then the project had been going on for a little more than one year and had about two more years until completion. A change in head management can be quite difficult and frustrating for participants, it could also lead to changes in processes and structures within the project which in turn could lead to even more frustration and stress. In the middle of the implementation of the new head project manager, COVID-19 commenced and even further changes had to be made because of the restrictions and recommendations put into place.

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4.3 Data collection

There are several different data collection methods that can be used for this particular study. For example; observations, sampling, questionnaires and secondary data. For the aim of this study, a qualitative approach will be used in the form of semi-structured interviews to get a deep understanding of the questions studied. In addition to the interviews which are primary data, secondary data will also aid this study. Interviews give the undertaking a more profound, subjective comprehension of the current circumstance, while secondary data gives a more extensive viewpoint. (Saunders et al, 2019).

An observation might have fit the purpose of this thesis incredibly well, however, due to the current situation of COVID-19, it might not be the safest data collection method. According to the Public Health Authority in Sweden, there are some local general recommendations that should be followed in order not to spread the virus. Some of these recommendations are, to refrain from meetings unless absolutely necessary and if possible, employees should work from home (Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2020). Therefore, as to not risk spreading the virus, the authors will refrain from the observation method.

4.3.1 Qualitative interviews

Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain a deeper and broader knowledge of the project. The questions were divided into four sections that were of interest for the analysis of this thesis, these are project, organizational changes in which the internal and external factors of change are included, as well as the changes together, following the theme of collaboration and lastly work satisfaction.

The interviews were about 45 minutes to an hour long and were conducted through Zoom. The respondents at Swedish Scaleups were five project leaders from five of the ten different partners as well as five employees working for the project leaders. This to get a broader perspective on the changes, both from a leadership point of view and an employee point of view. As to not cause confusion, the change of head management will hereafter be referred to change in project management or change in project manager and the responding 5 sub-project leaders will be referred to as project leaders. The language chosen for the interviews was Swedish, since the respondents preferred speaking in their native tongue to be as precise and accurate as possible in their statements and descriptions of the concepts being studied.

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The interviews were semi-structured, which means that most of the questions were already made up previous to the interviews, with a predetermined theme about the research phenomena (Saunders et al, 2019). Before the interviews, the questions were sent to the respondents via email, so that they would be able to prepare and give thoughtful insights to the areas of interest. In accordance with the prepared research questions, the questions asked during the interviews were formulated to cover the contexts and concepts of importance. Instead of being inspired or adopted from previous research, in order to develop stronger arguments for the analysis, the group members formulated the questions with regard to the phenomenon and developed research questions.

4.3.2 Secondary sources

The secondary sources used for this thesis are books, course literature, websites, scientific articles as well as journals from different types of official publishers. In addition to previous literature, documents from Swedish Scaleups have presented valuable information for the project background.

Secondary sources consist of summaries that have been published which contain raw data, it can be used for further explanations and information transfer where its main objective is to demonstrate additional knowledge and draw conclusions (Saunders, 2019). The course literature Research Methods for Business Students by Saunders et al., (2019) has been one of the principal sources for the structures used within the report. However, secondary sources such as papers and journals have been collected to improve the credibility of the systems in order to not be biased. These journals have been peer-reviewed, cited previously and the majority of them can be found in a scholar’s index.

4.4 Operationalization

According to Saunders et al., (2012) operationalization is the concept of translating concepts into tangible indicators. In order for the interview questions to fit the relevant theoretical framework, the questions were operationalized. In the table below the questions are presented together with the theme and the aim of the question (Saunders et al., 2012). The questions were divided into different themes that were derived from the theoretical concepts in order to get a broad understanding of the area of study. The order the questions were asked could vary between interviews which allowed the authors to be able to ask further questions in response to the topic of the discussion that could be of value ​(Bryman & Bell, 2015). The purpose of operationalization is to create an extension between theory and practice, as indicated by

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Lynham (2002). According to Bryman & Bell (2013), operationalization is based on a set-up on how the study will proceed to measure theoretical concepts. In this thesis, the authors have constructed this operationalization based on the theoretical concepts, as a starting point of view, in order to establish a link between theory and practice. The questions were formulated based on the previous literature research within this field of study to be able to answer the research questions for this thesis. The table can be found in the appendix.

4.5 Data Analysis

Saunders et al. (2012) state that qualitative data is more likely than not, non-standardised data, which is rather broad in volume and difficult to fully comprehend. A process through which the researcher summarizes, condenses and categorizes the data in order to group it together and put it into themes, is needed to analyze all of this information. In addition, the researcher will also need to link the themes together in order to answer the research questions.

In this thesis, the interviews conducted were audio recorded, with the permission of all of the participants, to be able to fully transcribe what each individual respondent answered to the questions. Through saving the audio file after the transcription was completed, the authors were able to go back and listen multiple times to the way the respondents answered the questions, if they hesitated or seemed generally unsure of what they were stating, which is rather important as it gives another dimension to the collected material. The majority of the transcriptions were dictated through Google docs voice input function as it considerably decreased the time put into each transcription. This resulted in the transcriptions being completed soon after the actual interview and the authors were able to hear as well as say the information provided by the interviewees, which resulted in a deeper understanding of the material (Saunders et al., 2012). There were of course some minor mistakes made by the software, however, these mistakes were easy to fix for the authors and it also enabled the authors to read carefully through the answers again. After the transcriptions had been completed, the commencement of writing transcript summaries began. These summaries comprise long statements into shorter ones which consist of the essence of what has been said by the respondent and are very helpful for the analysis of the data. The summaries allow the authors to identify principal themes and relationships that surfaced in the interviews (Saunders et al., 2012).

The method of Thematic Analysis was selected to be able to analyze and make sense of the qualitative results, with the use of coding which involves labeling the different data from the

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transcripts with codes for symbolizing meaning and extracting the data of highest relevance (Saunders et al., 2019; Langley, 1999). These methods were chosen in combination for analyzing the respondents’ answers in the interview due to the essential purpose of the methods selected focusing on themes and patterns which occur in a selection of data (Saunders et al,. 2019). Since the presented theory in this thesis is explanatory in character with an abductive approach, all of the data provided from the interviews is potentially interesting but will be restricted to the research questions for selecting the most relevant data to code. The source of coding is both concept driven based on previous theories and data driven based on labels from the authors and terms used by the participants (Saunders et al., 2012).

For this thesis, the summary transcripts were color coded in accordance to interesting categories that arose, this to make it easier to see patterns between the interviews. To provide an example, one theme that arose from coding the information collected from the interviews was ​Absence of Social

Interactions​. The table shows the categories

picked out from the interviews and in how many of the interviews they appeared in, thus resulting in a good basis for a collective theme.

The procedure of analyzing the data began right after the interviews were conducted, transcripts were made in separate documents through the process mentioned earlier in this section where the authors got familiar with the data, thereafter coding was performed which led to the search for themes and potential relationships in accordance with the research questions and purpose.

4.6 Quality criteria

It is important to dig deeper into the topic from previous studies and articles to be able to provide an overview and conclusion for the reader. To gain confidence in the topic of research, diving into literature that already exists on the subject is of great importance (Yin, 2013). The databases that have been used to gather the information about the researched

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topics are ABI/INFORM Global, Primo, Elsevier ScienceDirect, Diva, Google Scholar and Emerald Insights, which have been valuable to find scientific articles that have been peer-reviewed to be able to guarantee their reliability, validity and credibility and most of them can be found in the ABS-index list.

In addition, official web pages, journals, as well as documents collected from the respondents have been gathered to build a good foundation for this thesis. The authors have not excluded any information that is important to the research in question, this in order to make sure that the work is not biased (Bryman & Bell, 2015). The reader should be able to make their own assumptions and conclusions when reading the text and not be influenced by personal opinions of the writers, which increases the study's reliability (Bryman & Bell, 2015; Saunders et al., 2012).

4.7 Methodological Limitations

One limitation that can be found regards the previous literature on the theoretical concepts included within this thesis. The authors have used a scholars index concerning business and management literature called Academic Journal Guide (2018) by Chartered ABS. This list ranks different journals within this field of study and provides a good guide for finding valuable and credible sources of information. However, regarding newer theories, such as project management and organizational change management, the ranking is low and the sources scarce. Though, as mentioned previously, the literature used is found within this index, or at the least peer-reviewed. A second limitation has emerged due to COVID-19 and that is the restrictions and recommendations that have been put into place. These restrictions limit the authors from using specific data collection methods such as observations and face-to-face interviews, which might have resulted in the loss of expressful body language.

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5. Empirical Findings

In the following section the empirical findings will be presented.

By looking through the transcript summaries in a detailed manner the authors have found different themes that arose in the interviews. The empirical findings will be presented using the following themes as headings; Employee feelings towards change; Absence of social interactions; Striving towards common goals; and lastly Stress in connection to workload. The table below shows the different respondents connected to the partner.

Table 3 (created by the authors)

5.1 Employee feelings towards change

5.1.1 The internal change

The change of head management was according to eight out of ten respondents something positive. Before the internal change, the respondents found the project to be unstructured, that the objectives could easily be interpreted differently and that the partners were working at their own ends. PL1 stated: “When I heard about the new head project manager I felt like it at least could not get any worse.” According to PL3 the previous head managers were very divided, it did not feel like the two head managers were working towards the same things. E5 stated that ​“The reason the project was structured poorly before the change was not having

the right people for the correct positions.”

When the new manager took over the project, eight out of ten respondents felt that the biggest changes the new project manager caused were a better and more clear structure and continuous work as well as improved communication. The understanding of the platform that

Partner Project leader Employee

1 PL1 E1

2 PL2 E2

3 PL3 E3

4 PL4 E4

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is being built in the project has also become clearer. Respondent E4 explains that “ ​The

change entailed a more action oriented leadership and a more structured project, the combination of restructuring the project and the change in head management led to more clarity for the employees.” Respondent E5 thinks that the project is much easier to work in now given that they have a project manager that views the full picture and who is willing to interact and discuss different ideas. The effective leadership is the biggest difference for working together within the project, as well as the phase the project was in.

5.1.2 The external change

Before COVID-19 the project employees were traveling a lot between the different partners for meetings and workshops et cetera. When the pandemic started, the project's working processes and activities transformed into digital which has led to an increased amount of meetings as people are more accessible and because it has been easier to invite people and start meetings. The respondents emphasize that the biggest change has been the loss of physical interactions between the partners of the project. Which in turn have affected the communication and the networking. This will be further discussed in later sections.

What was mentioned by seven respondents were that the different phases of the project and the stage the project was in, affected the outcome of the external change. When COVID-19 started, the project was already halfway through, and at this stage relationships have been established and trust has been built between the partners. The respondents emphasize the importance of respecting the project's different phases and that the relationships would not have been as easy to establish if this would have occured in the initial phase. PL5 believes that “​In the initial phase of the project, it was more confusing, but the longer you work in the project, the clearer it becomes.”

Eight out of the ten respondents expressed that the external change was not as positive as the internal change. E3, PL4 and E4 felt that the creative aspect as well as the physical interactions are lost. PL1 feels like they have more to do now than previously and that COVID-19 has affected the goals in the way that it might be harder to reach them and that the outcomes might not be as satisfactory. PL3 explained that ​“having meetings digitally is a lot quicker and more efficient as there is a higher focus on the agenda and work, however, it is also a lot more intense”. The respondents felt that the increased intensity of the meetings makes it hard since they do not have the energy to sit in meetings the entire day. E3 states that the digital way of conducting work is manageable but it is not as fun as meeting in

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person and visiting the office. However, the respondents also explain that there is less time spent on traveling and more time for preparations which has made the workdays in some ways more effective.

5.2 Absence of social interactions

Another theme that was brought up a lot by the respondents were absence or lack of social interactions. As mentioned previously, due to the restrictions and recommendations put into place to handle the COVID-19 situation, all working processes turned digital for the participants. Nine out of the ten respondents have talked about how the lack of physical interactions and meetings have affected them negatively. They all state, in one way or another, that they are very social and that they gain energy from meeting people in person. The social contact has, to a large extent, lessened due to all of their working processes becoming digital. They also find it harder to build relationships and gain trust with people they do not know that well. PL3 even says that “ ​I sometimes have COVID-19 depressions

because I am unable to meet people physically, it feels as if everyone is just going in circles.​”

One respondent, E5, did not feel that the absence of physical meetings affected them to a great extent, because they already conducted most of their work digitally, previous to the pandemic.

What has also been expressed in the interviews is that it is less fun to have digital meetings rather than meeting in person, this opinion is shared by five out of the ten respondents. They feel that meeting virtually is less relaxed, it is more focused on the agenda and work, which results in less focus on their actual well-being and what is happening in their lives beside work. PL3 expressed that “​All processes get a little worse because of the digitalization, it gets a little tougher to do the work and there is a loss of energy, it is not as fun and you do not get to know people as good. ​” E1 and E3 concur, E3 says that “​The digital way of working is not as stimulating as working physically where you get to meet people. It is not as fun. ​” They

express that this also ties into the work satisfaction, if they are not able to have fun, their work satisfaction is lowered. However, E4 expressed that the digitization process was not dramatic.

Though the absence of physical meetings is hard for most of the employees, some do state that because of the digitalization of their meetings, people are more accessible now. While three out of ten respondents think this is a good thing, some have pointed out that it is also negative. PL1 states “​It has been a lot easier to start meetings and invite to meetings as

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people are more accessible, maybe a bit too accessible and that it is too easy to start short meetings​.” Being too accessible has turned out to be somewhat of a problem for five out of ten respondents, they have a lot more meetings now than previously, some say that they get pulled into virtual meetings for the smallest of things and even though the meetings are short they still take up time and may be disruptive. What has also been brought up in the interviews is that it is a lot harder to reach consensus and have discussions in digital meetings, E2 states “​You let the person speaking finish what they have to say, it is a lot harder to interrupt and chime in. Also, people are more easily distracted during digital meetings than if they would have been physically present.​”

Furthermore, all of the project leaders think that the digitalization and therefore lack of physical and social interactions did not affect the implementation process of the new project manager. They were able to meet and get to know the new project manager at a physical conference just before the restrictions were put into place. However, three out of the five employees express that they do feel that the implementation process was affected, because they did not get to meet the new project manager physically. E1, E2 and E5 all agree that it is harder to get to know the project manager on a deeper level. E2 states “ ​I feel like it could have been a bit of uphill work for the new manager seeing that they did not have the possibility to meet us physically and therefore it is harder to create close personal connections​.”

Regarding lack of physical meetings and creating close personal connections, the feeling that it has become harder and more difficult is something that is shared by a majority of the respondents. They not only feel that it is harder to get to know new employees within the project, but that it also is harder to create a personal relationship to the firms who take part in the activities arranged by the project. PL2 states that “ ​The networking activities have become

harder to perform, we can no longer connect different entrepreneurs to meet and we are unable to visit firms.” PL4 states that “The digitalization has negatively affected the personal connection to other people. It is harder to build relationships and get an understanding of others, what they do and why.​”

As has been stated by the respondents, how they have been affected by the lack of social interactions, is incredibly personal. They express that the more social the person, the more they are going to be affected by the virtual work setting and the more they are going to miss the social exchange.

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5.3 Striving towards common goals

A theme that emerged during the majority of the interviews, which is also an important aspect of this study, is how the respondents experienced if they were working towards the same objectives. According to all the respondents, the project is working well. Although, there are different opinions of how the different partners operate in order to reach the goals of the project. Four respondents brought this to light during the interviews and expressed that some partners in the project follow more their own agenda or have different aims in order to reach the goals. P ​L1 states “​We are not really collaborating to reach the same common goals, the partners are going their own ways to reach a goal which they have interpreted to fit their activities the best. ​”​According to E1, there are some partners using the project in order to finance their own activities.

PL3 states that the partners are very different in character, there is a difference between Incubators and Science Parks as well as their structure within. They have different assignments which make them work differently. ​PL5 expresses that ​the level of collaboration between the actors depends on different areas of the project. The collaboration is more intense in between some partners. When collaborating between different partners there is a higher chance to reach mutual goals and through communication, which increases during collaboration, the objectives are further discussed. “​It has become clearer who to collaborate with, not everyone needs to be involved in everything, so it becomes more effective ​”, stated by PL5. ​There is evidence of different interpretations of the goals set by the management of the project. Two of the respondents have clear opinions about operational activities, processes and models used within their partners without referring to the project. Four respondents referred to the processes, models and criterias set for the project and its purpose.

Collaboration and communication are vital for working together to reach common goals, s​even out of the ten respondents feel like the collaboration is lacking in some parts. This is evident from the differences in objectives that the partners can improve their collaboration. Five of the respondents clearly stated that collaboration is more intense where different partners have mutual interests or joint activities. The geographical location seems to be another factor for increased collaboration expressed by PL1, PL3 and E5. According to PL2 collaboration is built on trust and as a project leader it is hard to work explicitly well with all nine other project leaders. ​“It is not an easy task to steer ten strong individual

Figure

Table of Operationalization

References

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